1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fishing reel comprising a spool for winding up a fishing line, a traverse shaft provided with a spiral guide portion and rotatable in response to rotation of the spool, an enclosure for enclosiong at least one side portion of the traverse shaft, and a level winder through which the traverse shaft extends by a first bore, and the enclosure extends by a second bore, the level winder including a guided member engageable with the spiral guide portion of the traverse shaft and attached through a third bore perpendicularly connected to the first bore, in which the level winder is slidably reciprocated due to guiding engagement between the guided member and the spiral guide portion based on rotation of the traverse shaft thereby to winding up the fishing line in the spool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of the above noted fishing reels is proposed in Japanese Utility Model application "Kokai" No. 62-148063 which discloses that the level winder consists of two separate members, i.e. a first member defining the first bore and a second member defining the third bore, and that the second bore is defined by an outer face of the first member and an inner face of the second member. With the conventional structure, the enclosure having a C-shaped section covers one side portion of the traverse shaft to prevent the fishing line being wound up from entwining with the rotating traverse shaft. The first member engages the guided member with the spiral guide portion of the traverse shaft and guides the enclosure and the traverse shaft.
However, such a conventional struture is disadvantageous in that, if the first member is not accurately assembled to the second member, sliding movement of the level winder with respect to the traverse shaft and the enclosure or movement of the guided member by the traverse shaft are more likely to be disturbed. Additionally, the number of parts is increased, which results in a complicated assembling work.
Also, an outer surface of the enclosure and the traverse shaft are sandwiched between the second member and the guided member thereby to reliably engage the guided member with the spiral guide portion of the traverse shaft. As a result, if the traverse shaft is bent or eccentrically mounted, engagement between the guided member and the spiral guide portion is not stabilized, which tends to disturb smooth traverse movement of the level winder.
Furthermore, according to the conventional structure, an inner surface of the enclosure is adapted not to be in sliding contact with the first member. Thus, when the guided member is displaced after a long-term use, the level winder is in danger of clattering in a radial direction toward an opened portion of the C shape of the enclosure. In addition, when a force is imparted to the level winder in a direction along the traverse shaft, the level winder is inclined relative to the enclosure due to the clattering thereby to cause a strain between the level winder and the enclosure. Besides, if the rigidity of the enclosure is not sufficient, the enclosure is in danger of being deformed by the strain.